"Ha!" Kenpachi snarled gleefully, his katana with its signature jagged edge glinting in the sunlight as students shouted and screamed around him, the teachers and Momo struggling to escort them away from danger. "And here I was thinking that I wouldn't get to see any action here!"
"Just don't go overboard and pop out of your gigai. These gigai that Urahara gave you are custom made to better channel your reiatsu better, so we should be able to handle these dragons while in our gigai. Stick to kidou and zanjutsu and we should be fine!" Ichigo called back, eyeing the raging Horntail, slowly drawing his katana and a kidou gun from his hip, holding both weapons at the ready.
The dragons pawed the ground of the arena restlessly, snorting, gouts of flame spouting from their nostrils as they eyed the reapers standing before them, weapons drawn and ready.
After a moment of silence, punctuated only by the sounds of chaos as the students fled the arena, the Horntail decided to act. With a roar, it reared up and blasted fire straight at a trio of fifth-year students who were struggling to exit.
"No!" McGonagall screamed over the roar of the flames, staring in horror at the flames that had engulfed the students. In her shock she didn't notice that three of the Japanese wizards had vanished, or hear the shout of "Bakudou no. 81, Danku!"
After what seemed like eternity, the Horntail finally stopped breathing flame, turning its attention to the large, spikey-haired Japanese with a long, jagged-edged katana that leapt in front of it. The flames died away, leaving McGonagall and several others faculty and students to gape at the three Japanese, standing or crouching before the three cowering students, hands extended, the fire curling and dissipating around the edges of a large, transparent shield that shimmered in the heat.
Ichigo straightened from his crouch, nodding to Rukia and Byakuya, who had assisted him in defending the students. Turning to the shell-shocked students, who, he noticed, wore the telltale green of Slytherin House, he smiled comfortingly. "Are you guys okay?" The three nodded shakily, standing on wobbling knees. "Follow Momo, she'll get you out safely, alright?" he said, pointing to the young-looking captain of the Fifth division, who was standing nearby.
Ichigo smirked as the kind-hearted kidou expert took the three shaken students under her wing, and turned back to the dragons, which had taken the Horntail's attack as a signal and began their assault on the defending shinigami. Shooting a look at Byakuya and Rukia, he drew his katana again. "Let's go."
Ichigo flashed directly into battle, sparks flying as his blade scraped along the razor-sharp claws of the Swedish Shortsnout as it took a swipe at Toushiro. Nodding a quick thanks to the orange-haired captain, the white-haired prodigy held out a hand, bright white energy gathering at the center of his palm. "Hadou no. 4, Byakurai!"
The lightning streaked from his hand, impacting the Shortsnout's face with an explosion, wreathing the dragon's head with smoke. The Shortsnout roared in pain, shaking its head and dissipating the smoke with a shake of its head, emerging seemingly unharmed.
"I guess I should have told you guys before," yelled Ichigo over the sounds of the battle, looking slightly sheepish as he locked blades with the Shortsnout again, "Dragons are notoriously magic-resistant! Their skin is also extremely strong, so its hard to get through their armor!"
"You idiot!" Rukia called back as she held back the Chinese Fireball with a barrage of Soukatsui spells, the blue fire roaring from her hand to clash with the dragon fire spewing forth from the Fireball's throat. "Don't withhold that sort of important information from us in the future!"
"HAHAHAHA!" Kenpachi laughed maniacally as he engaged the Horntail, with support from Ichimaru Gin. "Man, this is almost as much fun as fighting with you, Ichigo!" he screamed as a spike on the dragon's tail grazed the Eleventh division captain's arm, causing blood to run down the huge man's arm.
Gin said nothing, grinning, as he observed the raging dragon and raging berserker before him through slitted eyes. They narrowed even further, if that was possible, as he noticed the dragon unconsciously keeping one side away from the madly laughing Kenpachi, defending particularly viciously as Kenpachi attacked a certain spot. Gin focused on the spot, and his sharp eyesight picked out a single cracked scale, less than an inch in diameter. His grin widened, stretching across his face sinisterly. Target sighted.
"||Ikorose, Shinsou!||" The short, wakizashi-length blade that was Ichimaru Gin's zanpakutou extended at blindingly fast speeds, covering the several meters' distance between the Third division captain and the angry dragon in less than the blink of an eye. In an instant, the blade's tip broke through the weakened armored scale, plunging deep into the dragon's side.
With a roar of pain, the Horntail jerked, surprising Gin as his blade was almost yanked out of his hand. With a small pulse of reiatsu, Shinsou was again wakizashi length, held in a relaxed but firm grip in the silver-haired man's hand. "So," Gin mused playfully, raising his blade to his face, licking the drops of blood off the shining steel, snakelike. "These overgrown lizards ain't too invincible after all."
Kyouraku huffed beneath the wide brim of his straw hat, pouting. "Aw, man. This is so troublesome. And here I was thinking that this would be an easy assignment. Well, fighting's better than doing paperwork, at any rate." He shuddered at the thought of his bespectacled vice-captain with her massive tome, threatening to brain him if he didn't do his work. "Yep, definitely better." He stared up at the looming figure of the Welsh Green, its massive teeth bared threateningly. "Ne, Ryuu-san, do you mind not fighting? I just want to sleep."
The smallest of the quartet of the dragons, but not small in any sense of the word, roared, the force blowing the lazy Eighth division captain captain's straw hat away and causing his haori and flowered kimono to flutter madly. "Ah, man," Kyouraku pouted again. "That was my favorite hat. Ne, Ryuu-san, you owe me a hat now," he said, crouching into a battle stance, drawing his daishou sword pair, the katana in his right and wakizashi in his left. "Now you've made me angry. Bad move on your part."
#
Harry blinked blearily, a small groan escaping his lips unbidden. "Ah, you're awake!" a feminine, kind-sounding voice chirped from somewhere above him. He blinked again, trying to focus on the source of the voice. After a while, his eyes landed upon the kind features of a teen with light brown hair. Despite her light hair, the girl had a distinctively Asian face, and Harry somehow knew instinctively that this was yet another of the Japanese wizards, or witch in this case.
"Wha…" he got out, the word sounding garbled to his ears. "What's going on?" Sudden remembrance struck him, and he bolted upright, only to collapse again as pain shot through his arm. That's right, he remembered. The Horntail got me.
"The dragons broke loose," the Japanese girl said, casting a worried look over her shoulder to where sounds of battle, clashing steel, and roars were coming from. "Ichi-nii and the others are taking care of it for now. I'm not worried about them, not really. What I'm worried about is you, Harry-kun. You took quite the hit. Your arm was cut quite badly, the spike severing a major artery and several important muscles. I'm working on repairing the damage, but I'm afraid your arm is going to be rather weak and sore for quite a while."
Harry looked to his side, his eyes widening at the sight of the blood-soaked ground. His sight was drawn to a glow of green, and he realized that the light-haired Japanese girl was holding both her hands over the long, ragged wound on his arm, glowing green. He couldn't help but let out a startled gasp when he saw that the skin and muscle was knitting itself together before his very eyes, the bleeding having already stopped. "How are you doing that?" he gasped, eyes wide.
The girl smiled kindly. "It's called healing kidou. Has Ichi-nii demonstrated regular kidou to you yet?"
Harry raised an eyebrow, the most he could do to convey his confusion in his current state. "Ichi-nii?" he asked.
"Ah, I forgot," the girl said again. "Ichigo's my older brother. I'm the older of his twin sisters, Kurosaki Yuzu."
"He has sisters?" Harry asked, surprise evident in his voice and face. "He never told me. Then again, we didn't exactly get off on the right foot…"
Yuzu laughed lightly. "Sounds like Ichi-nii!" she said cheerfully, all the while maintaining the healing kidou on his arm. Within minutes the gaping wound had completely healed, leaving only a white scar on his arm. She bit her lip, looking slightly guilty. "I've healed the wound, but I'm afraid there isn't anything I can do for the scarring," she said regretfully. "I may be an accomplished healer, but there are things that not even Unohana-taicho, my mentor, can do."
Harry sat up, flexing his arm experimentally. He marveled at the power this young girl before him possessed. Not only was there no pain, apart from a little stiffness, his arm felt fine. Not only that, his whole body felt refreshed, rejuvenated, as if he hadn't just challenged an angry mother dragon head-on.
His attention turned to the sounds of battle behind him, and his jaw dropped open at what he saw. There, with white cloaks fluttering dramatically in the wind, the sunlight glinting off their drawn katanas, eight of the Japanese wizards, those with the ranks of 'captain', engaged in ferocious combat with all four dragons. He heard shouts to the side and turned his head to see yet another white-cloaked Japanese helping McGonagall and the teachers with the student evacuation. This one Harry recognized as Captain Hitsugaya Momo, whom Ichigo had introduced the night of the champion selection.
"Why are there so many high-level Japanese here?" he asked Yuzu. "Ichigo told me that in your organization, there are thirteen divisions, each led by a captain, who are signified by their white cloaks. Why are there nine captains here, at Hogwarts, of all places?"
Yuzu giggled again. "The captains of the Gotei 13 are quite… unusual people," she explained. "Ichimaru-taicho – that is, Captain Ichimaru – of the Third division… well, he just does what he wants to do. There isn't much anyone could have done to stop him from coming. Captain Zaraki… I think Ichi-nii tempted him with a fight. Captain Kyouraku was probably avoiding paperwork, and the rest came last time. Except for Dad…"
"Your father?" Harry asked, intrigued. "And you said that you had a twin sister?"
"Yup!" Yuzu confirmed. "Karin is the vice-captain of the Thirteenth division, under Ruki-nee, and I'm the vice-captain of the Fifth division, under Captain Hitsugaya. And Dad's the captain of the Ninth division."
"Wow," murmured Harry, eyes wide. "So almost your entire family is in the 'Gotei 13', huh. What about your mom?" Instantly he regretted asking, as Yuzu's expression darkened, and she looked away.
"Our mother died when we were young," was her simple answer, the girl's cheerful, kind personality replaced by detachment.
"I'm sorry," said Harry sincerely. "I know how you feel. My parents died when I was only one year old."
The two sat in silence for a while, unsure of what else to say. The awkwardness was interrupted a few minutes later when a pained shout came from the battle, and a dark-haired girl staggered towards Yuzu, blood leaking from a gash across her chest.
"Karin-chan!" Yuzu cried, leaping to her feet.
"Yuzu," gritted the dark-haired girl, whom Harry surmised was the younger twin, Ichigo's other sister. "don't panic. It's just a flesh wound. Got caught by that stupid dragon's tail."
"Lie down," Yuzu ordered, her concern morphing into a stern, commanding personality. The light-haired twin yanked the black kimono down, exposing the wound, and Harry flushed, turning away politely in order to give the injured Japanese girl some privacy. Instead, he watched the fight again.
It seemed that the Japanese were more capable of matching the dragons as they were. Harry was impressed at the power each of the fighters possessed. When he first saw the dragons in the forest, it had taken at least five accomplished dragon-keepers to subdue even one, and there were only two or three Japanese per dragon now, with the massive, spikey-haired man taking on the Horntail all by himself, with a sinisterly grinning silver-haired man occasionally leaping in to strike at the weak points of the dragon.
#
Ichigo blocked a swipe from the Swedish Shortsnout on the flat of his blade, firing a shot of Okasen from his kidou gun in his other hand. These dragons really were pesky, with their high magic resistance and heavy armor. At the rate things were going, the fight would turn into a long-term battle of attrition, each side seeking to wear the other down. The dragons might begin to rampage, causing massive damage to buildings. They had to finish the fight now before it spread to the rest of the school grounds.
Toushiro rushed in to engage the dragon, and Ichigo took the moment of reprieve to cast a quick glance around. Momo had joined Rukia in combating the Chinese Fireball, the kidou experts exchanging blindingly fast barrages of kidou with the dragon. Her presence could only mean that the students had finally been safely evacuated to a safe distance. Ichigo smirked. Time to end this.
"Toushiro! Rukia! As commander of this mission, I hereby grant permission for level one release! Let's end this quickly before it gets out of hand!"
"Roger that!" both captains shouted, flash-stepping out of range. Rukia placed a hand on her katana, sliding it down the flat as she released her shikai. "||Mai, Sode no Shirayuki!||" With a blinding flash of light and a rush of cold, her blade turned pure white, a blindingly bright silk ribbon trailing from the hilt. Snow swirled around her, and the gouts of fire from the Chinese Fireball sputtered away immediately, completely sapped by the cold air.
"||Soten ni Zase, Hyourinmaru!||" Another rush of cold air, along with the darkening of clouds and a flutter of unseasonal snow, heralded the rush of Hitsugaya Toushiro's shikai. A chain and crescent-shaped blade now trailed from Toushiro's blade, and a sheet of ice began to coat the ground at the white-haired captain's feet.
Ichigo smirked at the strength of the wielders of the most powerful ice- and cold-type zanpakutou in the Gotei 13. Even restricted by their gigai, he could feel the power in the air. The fact that the temperature had dropped to below freezing and the snow falling from the clouds had nothing to do with the pure strength he could feel emanating from his friend and wife.
"Stand clear!" Rukia shouted, the other captains abandoning their fights, unwilling to get caught in their attacks. Although they would not be too injured, even the strongest of the shinigami present definitely did not want to get frozen by either the Tenth or the Thirteenth division captains.
Pivoting gracefully on her feet, Rukia poised her blade. Her motions were fluid and smooth, almost dancelike, showing all exactly why her attacks were called dances. "||Some no Mai, Tsukishiro!||"
A massive white circle appeared beneath the feet of the Chinese Fireball and the Welsh Green. The dragons attempted to take to the air to escape the chilling cold, but it was already too late. Ice had begun to crawl up their taloned feet, freezing them in place, leaving them to the mercy of Rukia's attack. In an instant, a pillar of ice encased the two dragons, extending far up into the sky, ripping a hole in the clouds.
Toushiro cut the air with a crescent slash, his blade humming with energy. An enormous ice dragon burst out of the blade, roaring its defiance at its fiery counterparts. Despite the combined efforts of the Swedish Shortsnout and the Hungarian Horntail, which blasted it with fire, the ice dragon powered through, wrapping both dragons in ice and encasing them like the other two.
Harry could only watch and gape at the powers of these two Japanese fighters, who were so strong that they could singlehandedly take down two dragons each. Just what sort of strength did these people have?
#
Hey everyone, fokker333 here! Sorry for the cliffhanger I left you with last chapter, I hope this makes up for it! Also, I have a quick question for my readers. I'm considering starting another Harry Potter/Bleach crossover story, since a plot bunny bit me hard last night and refuses to let go. Currently I'm considering to write the story but to not post until I'm finished with either it or one of the two stories that are currently in progress. Juggling two stories is hard enough, and along with school stuff I don't think I'll be able to manage a third. So my question is this: how many of you guys would read the new story? Summary is as follows:
It was all over. The war was lost, Britain decimated, the world left devastated in the wake of the Dark Lord Voldemort. Harry Potter and the remnant of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army can do nothing but hide, struggling to survive in the rubble of wizarding society.
Meanwhile, the bedraggled remnants of a once-mighty society, the soldiers who once cast fear into the hearts of Hollows, find themselves trapped in the world of the living, as their realm disintegrates into nothingness. With no hope left, they turn only to vengeance, determined to destroy the being that caused the destruction of their world.
In an act of desperation, two crushed societies join forces to vanquish the greatest evil the world has ever known in one final attempt to set things right.
Well? What do you think? Drop a review letting me know if you would read that story or not. Oh, and write some comments about the chapter, too. That would be nice. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!
~fokker333